Wednesday, August 08, 2018

Dark history

Everything is dark, but your own history is the darkest.
Going there is good for us -but we prefer  ( most of the time)  to hear romantic stories of others lighter or more complete moments   (esp in the evenings when our dark and incomplete days work could well come and haunt us)
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And when the contrast is lacking ( as it often is in human stories where the same dark things threaten us all) we find it easiest to romanticize some human culture or story far from our own ; we like to make,  read and promulgate fiction.

I am sure this is the reason  I can't get a copy of Bruce Pascoe's " Dark emu " from any library at the moment.
The idea that aborigines knew as much as us, is a great thought,just as is the thought that another cultural group like Europeans would fail to accept the facts thereon .Its a great thought because neither of us know all that much anyway,  and its largely true that our great capacity to learn is hindered , at times ,by our own fear of the unknown and our propensity to promulgate our own prejudices .
However the big picture is a much bigger story - where both parties act in both ignorance and arrogance--  but don't always admit it.
 None of us have access to the tree of knowledge of good and evil


Some say one should not let the truth get in the road of a good story .Fine if the book is carefully sold as it is fiction, science, truth or some mixture .  I say,  make sure you label writing precisely , If we mislead we can mislead our children and they deserve the truth- the whole horrible truth about history. Bill Gammages recent book ( Greatest estate on Earth) is a confused mixture of fact and speculation that does not stand up to our highest calling ---scientific enquiry - its a romantic novel with notes  .
Worshiping culture ( the game here ?) is a shallow and pathetic way to appreciate the good in culture .    The frame of culture is sub framing for good , but not the substance of the good inside.


I'll have to leave the definitive till I have read DARK EMU . I expect that Bruce is reminding us of the gaps in our knowledge of how seeds were used and how other practises made sense . Going beyond that is not going to help us respect aboriginal culture more . respect as Westerners traditionally understanding it is respect for competency and truth

Lets hope  the intransigent and incomplete nature of cultural traditions is recognized ;  that  all good Australians, just as  all good Australians reject hanging shit on another culture



The reality is of course that while humans learn  different things in different places,  we still have deep things in common - should we want to see that in our opponents / neighbours 
When competing for territory its much easier to see the blokes over the fence as ignorant and aggressive animals - to make the most of what they don't know or to exaggerate or ignore what we think they don't know .


There should be time in every day to move on - going back to the insubstantial and incomplete eroding walls of any culture is only acceptable if you don't stay there .
I don't believe that evolution drives us because that would remove our ability to decide anything .
The cultural wars of the present remind us that we have choices we have made choices - some good some bad ; many with  incomplete  information . There 000s should be weighed up against our 00's

Europeans are prone to ignore whats good about they learnt in Europe .

If Karma makes Australians  think about guilt it will fail to make the respect point it says it's trying to make as well .  This use of one truth is  not progress , but stalemate .
 As an ecologist,  I respect many aboriginal traditions of land use. But I respect European culture too in its scientific evaluation of how the land plants and people work . Both are not final- walking with respect is walking in truth with/ beyond culture.

We can all find things to criticize or question , We used to be harder on those who make a fortune exploring the unknown without a thorough investigation Those who pander to the lust of predjudice and the arrogance of careless dealing with facts.

Our media can show great hypocrisy by giving so much oxygen to speculation that will not stand the scrutiny of scientists . we maybe enterting a drak age simply because we haven't rid ourselves of the darkness within

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